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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26969860">The Future King</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlInterrupted36/pseuds/GirlInterrupted36'>GirlInterrupted36</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Childhood, Dimileth Week (Fire Emblem), Dimileth Week 2020, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd Needs a Hug, F/M, Fire Emblem - Freeform, Fire Emblem Three Houses - Freeform, POV Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Parent Death, Young Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Young Love, Young My Unit | Byleth, childhood AU, dimileth, dimitri and byleth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:15:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26969860</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlInterrupted36/pseuds/GirlInterrupted36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Dimitri is not so certain he wants to become king. But a visit from a certain someone helps him to put things into perspective. (Set in a childhood AU!)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Future King</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dimitri sat on the sidelines, as he often did, watching as the other boys in his class kicked a rugged brown ball back and forth across the grass between them. They made fun of him sometimes, for the way he talked so formally, for the way his hair refused to stay out of his face. For the fact that he didn’t have a mommy. Everyone else had one, but his had been gone since before the start of his memory. He didn’t know why, exactly, just that she had gotten very sick, that the pretty mage woman with the red hair had crafted the thing that would make her better just a little too late. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri reached down and toyed with a random green stalk of grass that burst from the dirt beside him. He wanted to play, to run around like all of these boys, but he didn’t know how to gain that acceptance. When the clod of dirt hit him smack on the left ear, he didn’t even see it coming.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your hair looks like </span>
  <em>
    <span>girl</span>
  </em>
  <span> hair,” one of the little boys laughed before blending back into the soccer playing crowd. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri dropped his head to his knees as his ripped the blade of grass from its roots and clutched it in his fist, pretending it was a lance. The heft of the lance was one thing he solidly understood. He would stab that boy who laughed right through the middle. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He absolutely would not cry. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a shadow over him and then a body plopped down beside him in the dirt. Ingrid. He liked that she wasn’t afraid to get dirty like all the other girls. He liked a lot of things about her. He thought that they could maybe be friends, but he was scared to try when so many others had shunned him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If you would gel your hair, they wouldn’t laugh.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri peeked out from beneath his unruly bang. “What did you say?” His brow furrowed as he struggled to recall if he’d ever heard of such things. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ingrid raised an eyebrow. “Gel? You know? Made from gelatin? My mommy puts it in my hair to make it pretty.” She made air quotes with her fingers as she said the word pretty, and it seemed from her expression she did not care one bit what she looked like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I don’t want to look </span>
  <em>
    <span>pretty</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he spat at her. That would be all he needed, to look even more like a girl. And it wasn’t like he had anyone to teach him the right way to be. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Maybe pretty is the wrong word. Put together? Like a king.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I am no king. I’m a kid.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You don’t act like a kid.” Ingrid looked him up and down with an appraising eye. “You don’t talk like a kid either. People think...you don’t like them. That’s why he teases you, you know.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well when your only friends are the servants who bring you food I guess you never really learn how to act your age.” Dimitri didn’t know where that had come from. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ingrid stood up and tossed her tangled blonde mane over her shoulder as she replied, “Okay then.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was obvious to Dimitri that he’d said something wrong when the girl stomped away, though he wasn’t sure what. He watched as she pushed her way into the soccer game with the boys, flying away with the ball as if she had been born to play, her feet sure and true. Her ease with the other kids filled him with jealousy; he would never be able to play so freely. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A cough somewhere behind him prompted Dimitri to turn slightly. It was the new girl, Edelgard. She hid behind her long brown hair, tracing a figure eight in the dirt with her finger. “I don’t have many friends either,” she said after a long while. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri wasn’t sure what to say, or if it was even okay to be talking to a girl like this. After all, Ingrid had really made herself one of the boys. Edelgard was very different. But a quick glance up told him the boys weren’t paying attention to them anyway. “I could be your friend.” The words came out before he could stop them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Edelgard stared across the field at the boys. “Friends would play. We should try. With them.” Before Dimitri could stop her, she was up and striding towards the group with a confidence he himself had yet to achieve. Dimitri watched as Edelgard walked right up to Ingrid, and then had suddenly stolen the ball against their protests. He admired her, this force of a girl who could just drive into the middle of the group and take over. Where Ingrid fit in, Edelgard was a bulldozer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri scrambled to his feet just in time as the ball struck against his shoe. What to do what to do what to---He raised his foot and kicked it away, more to get rid of it than to actually play. It was something he’d thought he might want, to be part of the group, but when presented to him he found it was easier to try and escape than to join. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The same boy from earlier doubled over laughing as he trapped the ball under his foot. Felix. That was his name. “That’s...that’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ingrid swatted him as she chastised, “Felix, leave him alone! You’re being a bully.” She frowned as the group moved away from him, and ran to steal the ball and return it to him. “You have just as much right to play as we do.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri trapped the ball under his foot like he’d see the other little boy too. He looked around the field, uncertain what to do next. Was he supposed to kick it towards the two sticks stuck in the ground? That was the...goal? Right? He turned and drew his foot back, and then suddenly found himself flat on his butt. The ball was gone, the boy who tripped him streaking in the opposite direction. Edelgard came back to him tower over him, hands on her hips. “You are a </span>
  <em>
    <span>king,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” she hissed. “Why don’t you act like it?? I would kill to be in your shoes.” She offered him a hand getting up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can do it myself!” He pushed himself to his feet, fiercely reminding himself that crying would not help him. At all. Swiping furiously at his pants even though he really didn’t mind the dirt, he dared a glance at her. “I’m not a king. I’m just a kid.” He turned to walk away, seeing no point in staying where he wasn’t wanted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“When your daddy dies, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> be king,” she called after him, an almost singsong note to her voice. She had no clue the impact of those words. Or maybe she did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri froze. “When my...what?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“When he dies,” Edelgard repeated slowly, “you become king.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think that he could lose them both, his mommy and his daddy, that he could be completely alone. That was not a day he was ready for. “That is a terrible thing to say.” He turned away before the girl could see him crying, suddenly grateful for his seemingly mean-spirited hair. “I...must go.” He sprinted towards his room, ignoring the rain of her words in his wake that it was true, that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> be king. She was right, he knew, but he wasn’t going to think about it. Not today. Not ever. Nor did he understand why she even cared. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was dark in his bedroom when he let himself in, allowing the door to slam behind him. He apologized out loud, to no one, for such unbecoming behavior, before sinking to the rug at the side of his bed. He stared at himself in the mirror, lasered in on the reflection that looked so much like his daddy, the king. They had the same eyes. The same hair, though the King tamed his much better. Dimitri wondered then how much of his mommy was also in that reflection, in the pieces that weren’t King Lambert. He wished desperately that he could remember her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hot tears cascaded down his cheeks as he thought of the mommy he had never gotten to know. He didn’t want his father to be that same void of memory, to be gone. He didn’t want to be king, because he didn’t want to accept what that meant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t be king,” he told the empty room, not even trying to bite back his sobs. “I won’t!!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As Dimitri stared at the reflection, it changed. Slowly at first, so that he thought it was simply a trick of his tears, but then a girl emerged. Around his age, her dark teal hair cascading to her shoulders, a large golden brooch in the middle of her chest. Her eyes were huge as she peered directly at him, one hand raised and pressed against the mirror. Dimitri shook his head and closed his eyes to clear the tears, but the girl was still there when he opened them again. His back pressed against the bed, he cautiously whispered, “Hello?” Was the girl even real?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hi!” she practically exploded. With a bounce forward, she placed both palms to the other side of the glass.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who...are you?” Dimitri wasn’t sure what to do or say. How was one supposed to handle the appearance of a strange young girl in the mirror?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My name is Byleth!” Her hair was as bouncy as she was. “And you’re...Dimitri? Right?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He nodded, dumbfounded. She knew his name. The strange random girl in the mirror knew his name. On the bright side, he was no longer crying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right! So, why can’t you be king exactly?” Her eyes were so open, inviting. He felt as if he’d known her for many moons, though he’d never met her or even seen her before. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I….” He pictured his mother’s grave that he’d been to a thousand times, a crumbling stone now nearly lost in overgrown grass. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She would want the best for you,” the mirror girl told him solemnly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“W-what are you talking about?” Was this Byleth character inside his head??</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Your mommy. She’d want what’s best for you. She’d be proud to have born a future king. I just know it!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Byleths enthusiasm was a lot for Dimitri, but in a way, weirdly infectious. He found the flush of sadness fading from his cheeks even as he struggled to figure out what to say. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I had a dream about you!” Byleth continued, as if his mother had never come up at all. She twirled a chunk of hair around her finger and peered out at him. “And then I wanted to meet you, and so I did!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How are you…” Dimitri couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling of puzzlement that draped over him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This?” She gestured around. “This was easy. I told the voice I wanted to meet you, and here I am!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why would you want to meet </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Dimitri couldn’t imagine anyone would want to see his soggy red face and dirty clothes. What kind of presentation was he making? Goddess, how embarrassing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“In my dream we were older.” The girl stared at him and then nodded. “And we were </span>
  <em>
    <span>married.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri’s jaw went slack. “M-married?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“With kids! Two! So you must really like me!” She leaned forward and winked at him like they were sharing some super secret. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Like you? I don’t even know you…” Wait. Kids? His face flushed a heat so strong it felt like a fever. Kids meant….EWWWWWW. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But you will! You’ll know me better than anyone!” She smiled and then winked again. She looked over her shoulder at something Dimitri couldn’t see, and then she turned back to him. “I have to go now!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dimitri’s head spun. It was all happening so quickly, this girl appearing, and then leaving. He wondered if he’d fallen asleep and she wasn’t real at all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You aren’t asleep,” she responded instantly. Almost as if he’d spoken out loud. Except...he hadn’t. She really </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>inside of his head. “You are definitely not asleep. And I am definitely real. But listen. You are going to be king, someday. And it’ll be okay. You’ll be sad, for a time. But then you’ll be better, because I’ll be there to help you. I marry a king. And I’m going to marry </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wow.” Dimitri had no clue what to say. The girl, Byleth. She carried herself with a certainty he only dreamed he could someday feel, stronger than any of the kids on the playground. He felt instantly connected to her, and the way she gazed at him made him almost believe they really would have a forever together someday. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Byleth’s smile set the room aglow. “Yup.” But then her brow creased. “And Dimitri? One more thing.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes?” He leaned forward, his breath snatched away by the light of her child eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That brown haired girl? You think she could be your friend. But she won’t be, when it matters. She’s going to betray you. But </span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>will always be there.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Edelgard?” Dimitri frowned. She was bossy, sure. But...betray?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But Ingrid and Felix will be your friends until I come back, and even beyond then. Trust me. Go to them. Be confident. Take your place.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With those words, she was gone, and Dimitri’s face was the only one left in the reflection. He sank back again, unsure what to think. The girl seemed so sure, so certain. Marry him? They weren’t anywhere near old enough to think about such things. But it was like she’d known things he didn’t. Like about Edelgard. Should he trust her? That boy with the ball had been so mean that Dimitri couldn’t imagine being his friend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then that Byleth had said he </span>
  <em>
    <span>would </span>
  </em>
  <span>be king, and that everything would be okay….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Could that be real? Could he trust her? Did she know the future? She’d come to him right as he needed something to believe in. She thought he could be king. He could be king. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> be king. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As the boy who would be king, his first order of business was to claim that soccer ball. He opened the door and walked back out, past Edelgard without a word, right into the middle of the group of kids. And his feet found the ball like it was magnetized, snatching it from between Felix’s feet and driving it between the two sticks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Felix stepped back, applauding. “Well played, then.” There was not a note of the usual snark in his voice. And suddenly all the kids were looking at him with admiration, and though Dimitri didn’t completely get it, he understood that he had taken control for once. And he liked the way it felt. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he looked up into the sky, Dimitri thought he caught a glimpse of teal hair looking down at him. He smiled and he wondered if she would ever actually return. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
</p>
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